Les Bowen

STAFF WRITER

Les Bowen has covered the Eagles since 2002. Before that, he covered the Flyers for 13 years. He came to the Daily News from the Charlotte Observer in May 1983, just as the Sixers were winning the NBA championship. He thought, "Gosh, this sort of thing must happen all the time here."

The Eagles are making general manager Howie Roseman and head coach Chip Kelly available this afternoon at NovaCare, along with two of their five free-agent signees, James Casey and Isaac Sopoaga. But it is unlikely the team has finished shopping the free-agent market. Former 49ers defensive linemen Rick Jean-Francois is visiting with the Birds right now, and the team's concerns in the secondary certainly haven't been fully addressed with the signings of safety Patrick Chung and corner Bradley Fletcher.

Fletcher, by the way, is such a household name that the Eagles' initial announcement identified him as "Fletcher Bradley," and your Eagle-eyed Eagletarian didn't even notice they had it backwards.

There are a lot of players on the market in the secondary -- Baltimore's Bernard Pollard hit with a big thud this morning -- and the market is slow to take shape. Corner Chris Houston's reported $25 million, five-year deal to stay in Detroit might help out there. The Eagles have let it be known they won't be signing top-of-the-market names such as safety Dashon Goldson or corner Sean Smith, but they certainly have interest in some other guys out there -- corners such as Derek Cox or Antoine Cason, for example.

Poll

What’s made you happiest this week?

Chase Utley’s homer in Clearwater

That Asomugha is outta’ here

Knowing the Sixers can only lose games for one more month!

You could argue that even though the Eagles' offensive line was terrible last season, fixing it in free agency isn't a huge priority, since the anticipated return of Jason Peters, Jason Kelce and Todd Herremans ought to make things a lot better, and it seems pretty likely that an offensive tackle might represent the best value, if the Eagles hold onto their fourth overall selection in the upcoming draft.

But it's dangerous to assume everybody will just be healthy and better than ever, and you can't absolutely bank on the first-rounder being an OT. You want the flexibility to trade down, or just to take the best player available there. So the fact that the Eagles definitely have looked into ex-Miami tackle Jake Long, and have been reported to be in the mix at some level for New England's Sebastian Vollmer and Andre Smith, makes sense. All three players are repped by agent Ben Dogra, by the way -- one-stop shopping. Makes it easy to see why Rosemman tread carefully during the protracted drama over the release of Dogra client Nnamdi Asomugha.

BTW, as I mentioned Tuesday on Twitter, I wouldn't be shocked to see Nnamdi retire, as he approaches his 32nd birthday in July. He has huge philanthropic interests, and a budding acting career. He's also a pretty smart guy who has to realize he has lost a step. On the other hand, if, say, the Patriots wanted to make him their latest reclamation project, that might be hard to turn down. But I don't see Nnamdi, a proud man, wandering around willy-nilly, visiting every franchise that might have a job open.